Being stubborn and naive: How Bebo founder Michael Birch made his millions

SOME of the world's wealthiest people reveal the motivations that drove them to make their fortunes

Michael Birch, who set up the social networking site Bebo, with his wife Xochi [GETTY]

At the lowest point in his life Michael Birch was so broke that he was forced to borrow money from his mother-in-law to pay for groceries.

A self-confessed geek, he’d quit his dull but secure job in insurance to create computer programs. For three years he struggled but then he created one of the first social networking sites, Bebo, which at its peak was more popular than Facebook.

At the height of the dot.com boom in 2008 Michael, from Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, sold the company for £500million.

Later when Bebo failed under its new owners he bought the business back for just £600,000. The 43-year-old is one of three billionaires featured in a new TV programme, which goes behind the sports cars and super yachts to try to discover what makes the fabulously wealthy tick.

Around the world there are estimated to be 1,400 men and women in this most exclusive of clubs, including about 75 in the UK. But what motivates them, what do they all have in common and once they have become so rich that money ceases to matter what do they do next?

Remarkably Birch insists that making a stack of money was far from his mind when he set out and that he struggled to cope with becoming rich. When he sold the business he also found he had nothing to fill his time.

Birch, who has two children, says: “The most enjoyable part of the Bebo experience was early on when it was just a handful of people in an office. It was exciting but as it got bigger it stopped being as much fun.

"It’s an unusual circumstance suddenly to have so much money. When you’re not from that background and you suddenly have wealth it’s a hard adjustment. It’s hard for anyone to feel sorry for you so you don’t speak about it.”

His solution was to move his family to San Francisco and start from scratch, launching a business to help fledgling technology firms. He’s now involved in more than 50, is building an exclusive members’ club called The Battery in his adopted home city and has thrown himself into charity projects.

Although he never has to work again Birch says: “I always feel I need to be productive in some way. If I don’t feel a sense of satisfaction I get bored. I have a need to be out there meeting people.”

The documentary also features Russian media tycoon Dmitry Itskov, 32, who is now trying to make humans immortal, and Indian entrepreneur Naveen Jain, 54, who next plans to exploit the Moon’s natural resources.

The value of Itskov’s fortune is closely guarded but reported to be more than £1billion while Jain, who has run a series of successful technology companies, is said to be worth more than £2billion.

In the film The Social Network, a semi-fictionalised account of the founding of Facebook, one character says: “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”

Yet strange as it might seem, simply making money isn’t a big motivator for any of the billionaires in the programme. Although Itskov admits he was once driven by cash, both he and Naveen Jain claim it’s not important. Like Michael Birch it seems they are single-minded men who are inspired by a desire to be creative and pursue their dreams.

The Russian, who has a 30-year plan to enable humans to transfer their personalities into robots and ultimately enable us all to live as holograms, is often accused of being crazy. He lives out of hotel rooms, city hopping around the planet as he tries to generate interest in his Avatar project.

He says: “I don’t even have time to have a wife. In some ways I’m a monk. It’s a pity but I am what I am. There was a period when money was a motivation but eventually you come to a dead end. I tried to look for something more.”

A strong work ethic is another common bond of the billionaires. Jain, a father of three who comes from a poor background in Uttar Pradesh, India, and in 1983 got his breakthrough when he joined a business exchange programme in the US, gets up at 4am every day.

Naveen Jain is a self-made billionaire and aims to send holidaymakers to the moon [GETTY]

You are stubborn enough to think you can do something and too naive to think it’s a really bad idea

Michael Birch

He says: “I get up early because somewhere around the world people are awake and working. There is no substitute for hard work – it doesn’t matter how smart you are.”

Jain has also been derided for his vision of taking paying passengers to the Moon for holidays and bringing back natural resources. But he insists: “Somebody is going to create a trillion-dollar industry in space and we sure hope it’s us. When you tell someone you have an idea and they don’t think it’s crazy you know you are going wrong.”

He denies he is a risk taker but thinking outside the box is clearly another shared characteristic.

“Successful people go out and solve big problems,” says Jain, who is now based in Seattle where he has four other businesses.

“For me it’s really not all about how much money I can make but how many lives I can improve.”

These billionaires also have fingers in many pies and are always on the lookout for the next idea. For Michael Birch that’s also trying to restore Bebo to its former glory.

He says: “Who knows if I will succeed? But it will be fun trying.”

Asked in the programme if there’s anything in his character that enabled him to become wealthy when so many others fall by the wayside, Birch replies: “There are a couple of traits that help. One is being stubborn, the other is being very naive. You are stubborn enough to think you can do something and too naive to think it’s a really bad idea.”

Luck is also an element, as is being in the right place at the right time. Birch could not have seen the global recession coming when he sold Bebo and it’s estimated the financial crash wiped £155billion from the fortunes of Britain’s wealthiest individuals and halved the number of billionaires.

Casualties were reported to include Sir Richard Branson who lost £1.5billion, reducing his worth to £1.2billion, and Formula 1 tycoon Bernie Ecclestone who lost £900million to shave his fortune to £1.46billion.

For anyone searching for the elusive magic formula, consultant WealthInsight has analysed what unites the world’s billionaires. It concludes that you are most likely to join the club if you are a man, run a technology business and live in New York.

Although all three featured in the programme are self-made, another common factor is inheriting wealth. Self-belief, vision and sheer hard work all undoubtedly play a part. Yet in fact the surest way to become a billionaire is to start out with a million pounds in the bank.